


Dust It Off

by BabbleBeak



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (plural for Sans), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Depends, F/M, Female pronouns, I won't mention a name, Kind of Reader, Oops, Papyrus (Undertale) - Freeform, Six Skeletons One Maid inspired, au sans - Freeform, bad choices, bad puns?, but uh more than six skells sometimes, first fic i've posted on archive, heh, hope they're aren't too many of these, huehue chaps are getting shorter ;w;, kind of not, no frilly girliness?, oh this also is tied to A Songbird's Lament, or that I'll spoil your fanfic appetite with another, sans (undertale) - Freeform, six skeletons and a girl, sometimes, whoo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-09-23 00:02:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9630731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabbleBeak/pseuds/BabbleBeak
Summary: On your feet,there's work to do and a long day to do it.





	1. Clueless

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RaccoonSinQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaccoonSinQueen/gifts).



> Heh, bet you've seen this way too many times. I couldn't help this creation though, it was tempting to say the least to put my own sort of spin to the scenario RaccoonSinQueen had conjured up. This has been bouncing around in my head a while since I started reading, and now that I've given A Songbird's Lament a try and yea. 
> 
> I guess it's time for an outlet now that I have an Archive account.
> 
> I'm not sure if I'll do more than this one chapter, but I'm kind of flexible so maybe I'll end up doing more than just the one
> 
> Name Key:  
> Patchtale - Match(Sans) and Zy(gote) [Paps]  
> Reapertale - Ven(detta)[Sans] and Pat [Paps]  
> Splittale - only the two Sans though: Jape and Icarus

Mornings.  
  
When the Earth's orbit would cause the sun to hit either of it's halves to create that which we call the start of the day. It was also the bell ringer for many individual's time to get up and go; their work days waiting for them and non too patiently. She was one who just couldn't be spared of it. Not for a single moment she felt like some days, being the help to a group of high rollers did that to a person. The pay, at least, made up for that.  
  
Sunlight fit it's greedy fingers through the slots of her mangled blinds and she pulled her pillow over her head, something like a growl gargling in her throat and dying out as her mind urged her to rise. Breakfast had to be made in fifty judging by the weak heat of the natural light beaming down on her exposed arms- she got good at telling time since her wall clock's batteries died a few months ago. That left ten for a shower, something like three for getting dressed and then a little over forty for the actual cooking. She could work with that. She tussled with the sheets constricting her lithe body and didn't bother to fix them. No one visited her room anyway, it was the one place she could be as messy as she pleased. It was placed somewhere on the smaller third flight of the old, English cottage style home. It was quite the mighty, old time structure, built to serve more as a small manor than just a normal house really. The two floors below were much larger, the second holding an ancient in appearance library she tended to drift off to on less bustling hours, all of her employers' quarters and several bathrooms. The first held the sitting room with large bay windows she just loved, den, laundry room and well supplied kitchen. Each furnished borderline lavishly. The basement was a storage sub level, and one she wasn't invited to go in unless supervised, if at all. Travelling around the manor may give her a bit of a workout but it all came with the job description.  
  
She was hired to serve as the maid. A term that didn't quite feel proper rolling off her tongue, though, she dealt with it. She preferred _the help_ if anything, maids were just so servant like. It made something pull at her when someone tried to degrade her for her current occupation. She didn't let them get off with insulting her without chewing their ear off if they really wanted to get into it, but most times she held it together. Collectedness was needed in her line of work seeing as she answered to the needs of others.   
  
Just to make sure she wasn't persecuted by stereotypes every time she set foot outside the manor to gather supplies and the like, she bartered with her employers the day she came knocking at their door asking to apply for a job position they were looking to get filled. A monster stationed in a bar near Ebbott was the one to tip her off about it.  
  
It wasn't her first and certainly not last choice as something she wanted to do in life. Never having liked cleaning much, and what with her being a college graduate. It was just that she needed a particular sum of money faster than what an ordinary job would dole out within the time she was looking to get it. They agreed, so long as she did to their terms. Thus, she was able to decide the parameters of her work clothing and some privacy issues regarding her wages and herself. Privacy that she stressed during her application. Her uniform was simply slim, tight fitting slacks, a low collared dress shirt and a blazer. They didn't actually think it was as unorthodox as she thought they would. They had mentioned in the contract the dress code they had in mind were something similar to the ideas of some of their companions. Which wasn't at all what she had put together and something she was glad to have a replacement arrangement for. Skirts weren't her thing. They were annoying to wear too often, hiked up, got stuck in doors and whatnot, and were just something she couldn't be annoyed by daily.  
  
She huffed as she pulled on her pants, buttoning them before going to work doing the same to her ironed shirt. Her tired eyes faced the mirror as she did, hands quickly finishing the buttons and then grabbing the sleek blazer hung on the back of the chair in front of her desk. She pulled it on in one movement and corrected the collar justly. She picked up the brightest piece of her ensemble from her top drawer, a bow tie. Red today. She tucked it under her shirt collar and tied it deftly, having perfected the procedure back when she tied ribbons in the hair of her two sweet little sisters.  
  
She took a deep breath, stuffing white gloves half way into her front pant pockets and neatly rolling her sleeves.  
  
Time to work.  
  
She jogged down the spiraling stairs and zipped into the stocked kitchen, her worn tennis shoes giving her increased mobility on the hardwood floors. Even if her more particular employers thought she should get a new pair that didn't have all kinds of wear and tear. She set out to make a simple but hearty breakfast that would hold everyone off until a late lunch or even dinner if need be. She grabbed pans from the cabinets above the stove, using a handy step some of her other employers had to use also to reach them. She clicked on the stove burners and then went on to garner food from the large fridge. Plump link sausages, bell pepper and mushroomed omelets. Each with combinations of seasons to give them as much flavor as possible while also catering to different pallets, and to make them savory but not unbearably so. She worked with muscle memory moderated from her time doing this process through the months as she prepared the course. The sound of the raw meat and eggs crackling and popping along wit the delightful smell of food helping her and her gut to wake up properly. Who needed coffee when there was this?  
  
That didn't mean she didn't have to make a pot. With all the burners turned low, she placed the bowl of waffle batter in her arms down so she could get the coffee going. And of course tea. She filled two separate containers of water, put one on the last burner and the other in a complex coffee maker she had to learn the ways of with some practice. She had considered just telling her employers to go without coffee once but some of them would be too lethargic when deprived of the addictive serving of caffeine. The coffee began its creation and she was back at the lively stove. Moving with an air of fluidity as she cooked, setting up several platters and finishing the Belgium waffles as another side. They were heavenly fluffy, the different berries and chocolate she added to them melding just the same in them, and she resisted just eating one now. Her employers came first.  
  
She could hear some idle chatter in the dinning room that manifested some minutes ago just a swinging door away and balanced two plates on either of her arms. She was glad her clumsiness didn't influence her as much when she did this anymore otherwise there would be more than one mess to clean in the morning when she needed her productivity on high. The soft morning din continued with varying timbres but several greetings and thanks were sent her way as she slid the plates before some of her employers.  
  
"Smells delicious, as always." Zygote, the tallest by far among them complimented as he plucked his silverware from where they were set up on the table.  
  
She responded to him as she hustled back to the kitchen for two more platters.  
  
"Thank you sir."  
  
She was grabbing the last of breakfast's servings when she turned around to see Icarus, one from the only set of twins in the household, behind her. She flinched but didn't allow her startled muscles to quake the food off the plates in her hands or let them slip from where they lay flat on her palms. She chuckled nervously and the skeleton's smile twitched.  
  
"ah, sorry wings. should've told you i was comin' in." that anxious edge to his tenor that came whenever he was feeling at fault afflicted him and she rushed to soothe it. He was someone who required a careful hand emotionally at times, something she found out the hard way.  
  
"No, no. You're fine, I just wasn't expecting you. You'd think I'd be used to the way some of you all enter rooms by now." her smile was a bit awkward, granted she was hard at making herself smile.  
  
"You came in to ask about the tea, yea? Well it's about to be out, just come on. I have your food right here and you should be sitting out _there_." she gestured to the dining room with her head like a gawky seagull and got a laugh out of Icarus. Just what she was fishing for.  
  
"okay."  
  
He walked out the kitchen and she was close behind, placing down his plate as he sat and then the other to his upbeat twin, Jape. Someone to that kept her on her toes.  
  
One more trip to the kitchen so she could stack condiments and beverages on a sterling serving tray, and she was pretty much complete with the mission that was breakfast. She handed out two cups of coffee and four cups of tea, passing around the condiments she'd brought as well to those who drank it. Even if Zygote and Pat disliked the idea of the rest of the manor's residents ingesting them the way they did, they couldn't do much to actually get them to stop. She didn't judge, she had odd food habits and had no room to be a hypocrite. to old preferences that died hard.  
  
She gave a half bow and dismissed herself. Jape stopped her short.  
  
"Have the waffles got!!-"  
  
"Extra chocolate chips. I know Jap. I'm quite partial to them too." she did a two finger salute to the bouncing monster and he grinned wider. Sheer amusement in the bright pupils that floated in his large eye sockets like it usually did. It made him his brother's polar opposite.  
  
"Thank you!" he chirped as she went to clean up the slight mess her cooking had left and eat her own breakfast.  
  
She wolfed down her food, praising herself for the good job she'd down and then going to check on her employers that she could hear wrapping up their meal. She came out just in time to see them rising from their chairs and she began collection of their empty dishes, the group mobilizing either to their workplaces or to some other part of the manor. Zygote lingered though, which was odd considering he had to travel inward to the human city soon with his brother that was already out the room. They often took trips from the manor, rarely being able to just work from a location they purchased in the city for longer than a week at a time before going somewhere a town over chasing some lead or other. They came back empty handed more than not, and she had no clue what it was that they were hoping to one day return in hand with.  
  
He looked apprehensive, his jaw grating his teeth lightly in thought.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I must ask a question. If you do not mind. I require advice."  
  
She looked at him, puzzled as she gathered the dirtied plates in her hands. He was the one she sought advice and opinion from on most occasions. It was rare that he ever asked for either, going so far as to tell her she was admittedly wise once long ago. Even then, she thought it was a stretch because Zygote was like intellect incarnate. From the way he carried himself to the eloquent and educated way his spoke and conveyed his ponderings or discoveries. Well thought and calculated. Though, that also made a person predictable. And he was. Still, he was someone she respected fully and it helped that he was the one to convince his brother to hire her.  
  
"I'm not sure if I can be of much help, but I can certainly try sir. Go ahead."  
  
His deep ribcage seemed to swell behind his obsidian dress shirt and overthrow, and it was like for the first time nervousness was wearing at him. Strange.  
  
"When courting someone, you'd need a compassionate approach, yes?"  
  
Assumptions birthed themselves in her mind like pollen bursting into the air on a windy spring day but she didn't let them make her have a prolonged moment of silence. That would have been a dead giveaway of the questions she was thinking of regarding Zygote's love life.  
  
"Yes, that's about right." she kept it simple. Her take on love was detached at best seeing as it had been so long since it's tendrils coiled her in its dual headed embrace. She still knew enough about it to help guide someone's experience in it to an extent although.  
  
The skeleton's expression loosened up and his placid smile returned, broad shoulders no longer tense. He bowed his skull slightly in her direction and his gloved hands found their place behind his back.  
  
"I thank you. I will leave you to it then, apologies for interrupting your duties."  
  
"Nah, it's alright. I don't mind. It's more fun than doing the dishes, believe me Zygote." she admitted, hefting the load of utensils and plates to the kitchen. She looked back when she heard his deep chuckle.  
  
"Yes well, no dawdling." he chided teasingly.  
  
"I know sir." the corner of her lip quirked.  
  
She didn't need any docked pay.  
  
The dishes didn't take long and before she knew it, she was drawing back the drapes to and wiping down the bay windows of the den she regretted liking so much with a soap and water drenched rag. While they gave a great view, they were also a pain to wash. She had to get the ladder from the attic and try very hard not to decapitate Vendetta as she passed him in the hall earlier. She should take his advice and not swing around when she was carrying the thing. She had just got the last smudge on the window and used her straining forearm to wipe her brow, exhaling as she stared out at the lush pastures and spread out trees of the acres connected to the manor that were just infected by the newborn spring. Next would be taking the books her employers took from the library back to that formidable formation of thousands of readings. She slid down the ladder after making sure no one was in the room to her do it and folded the object back down to size. She left it there, making a mental note to return it to the attic later and visited the washroom for the crate she used to put books in.  
  
Each of her employers borrowed a selection from the library weekly, monthly if it was a lengthy novel, and she did too. There was no deadline specifically and really, the only one concerned with the books getting back to their places on the shelves were herself and _Pavo_. A skeleton from another pair of brothers that more so visited the manor than stayed long term. They worked on a similar schedule to Match and Zygote, except they had a less ambiguous job. They were astrologists and a part of some project that calls upon their presence most times. It left her with less work on her end but also less time to really know them with their absence. A loss, though one she could live with.  
  
She went around her employers' rooms, scooping up books from dressers, beds or the floor if they were accidentally discarded there. Some had flags and tasseled bookmarks still slated in them, as well as _not finished_ post it's on their covers. Those were the ones she left. Though, in Match's room, she felt almost like she was trespassing as she came for his books. He and Vendetta were known to take many, Icarus beating them both but speeding through them and eager to get started on a batch. Match's room was poorly lit and nearly as messy as hers. Save for the closet for some odd reason. She moved faster as she piled the few hardcovers in the crate, stopping only when a ragged paper flew off Match's dresser as she lifted a textbook on relativity. Instinctively, she picked it up. Also instinctively, she pressed against its wrinkles and read it.  
  
Tried to anyway.  
  
It was made up of wingdings, and not just the original type, a few other variations as well. Which she knew from screwing around a lot on the internet back when she could frequently access it and when she went to wifi cafes on her free days with her clunky old laptop. She could barely make out a coherent sentence, except for one word, and put it back where it had fallen from. A sudden chill struck her. Maybe she shouldn't have gave it scan. Then again it wasn't like she could decipher it past several words here and there that didn't hold a lot of context without all the others on it. Well, no harm, no foul.  
  
Right?

 

* * *

  
  
_ "You are all so pathetically  _ clueless _ of what you've gotten yourselves into." _


	2. *paper hearts,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call me your honey, ice tea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh, thought I should make this for the heck of it?? I mean there were so many people doing things the other day and I'm trying to too with other fandoms. Just-
> 
> Happy uber belated Valentine's Day
> 
> Name Key:  
> Patchtale - Match(Sans) and Zy(gote) [Paps]  
> Reapertale - Ven(detta)[Sans] and Pat [Paps]  
> Splittale - only the two Sans though: Jape and Icarus

Valentine's day had come.

 

It was a couple after she found that obscure slip of paper in Match's room and she hadn't been called up by the skeleton so she assumed he did not know she had touched it. There was no reason to really either, it wasn't like she nabbed it altogether. Things were running smoothly, very smoothly, until now. In a manner if speaking.

 

She forgot to check the calendar and was really just running off weekday names in the past months so of course she forgot about holidays that she didn't have great interest in absolutely. Valentine's being no exception because she didn't have a sweetheart or family around to share it with. She'd been too busy looking for the latter anyhow and trying her best to pull her family back together from the scattered pieces that they were. She'd hastily sent some flowers from the garden with Pat's permission - he'd also been the one to come up with the idea when she came up with buckish - to her recovering mother the day before, but now she was beginning to stress over the fact she hadn't gotten her employers a thing. It wasn't like she was obligated to, just felt that consideration was a good quality. One she should enact even for this holiday.

 

It wouldn't be too hard for her to go out and purchase gifts for them being that it was a busier day of the week with Icarus, Match and Zygote out. Jape and Pat never had a problem with her wandering or anything when the others weren't around, and interacted with her probably the most out of them all. They were much more upbeat then their siblings and got positive energy alive in the large house. She enjoyed them, and would indulge in whatever they wanted to share with her willingly. How could she not? It gave her an excuse to squawk her mouth off without being called chatty or loud. Not that she had been called either of those during her time here. Another thing she rather liked; they could keep up with her volume when she got excited or found something relatable. It was a stress reliever to say the least to talk with them, though she didn't quite trust them enough to let more stoic matters slip into a conversation. However, she knew that either one of them would allow her favor if she asked.

 

And seeing as Jape could teleport short distances, he would be the most useful if she was to get him and the others something.

 

She caught the monster in the sitting room and walked quickly to him. The drapes of the bay windows were drawn open and natural light splashed over everything, including him. It made the house seem even more rustic and comfortable.

 

"Jape," he looked at her, smile large. He was wearing a flushed purple sweater with comical designs, it was nice that despite having the money to afford the manor, the monsters lived humbly like ordinary people. Unlike humans who would have succumbed to wealth trends from the beginning.

 

"Yeah?"

 

She combed a hand through her hair, eyes avoiding the flecks in his eye sockets that emoted most of his feelings for a moment as she chuckled lightly.

 

"Uhm, could you do me favor?"

 

When she did look at him he had adopted an obvious curiosity to the question, eye lights contracting. He left the bridge of colorful dominos he was lining on the floor and got up from where he was siting cross legged. He tapped his teeth with a phalange tip. 

 

"What sort of favor?"

 

She tried not to beat around the bush and just got on with it.

 

"I need a ride into town and I was hoping you could help?"

 

It hadn't taken long for Jape to get used to how fast she could speak at times when she was feeling apprehensive or ecstatic and nodded slowly, before taking a pronounced thoughtful pose.

 

She was feeling less and less confident about this as the seconds stretched as he was like that, even if in reality it wasn't very long. It still felt suspenseful. Like when you asked a parent for a favor when you were supposed to be doing chores, which she was actually supposed to be doing right now but then she got the idea to cram in a moment of quick, offhanded shopping. She was just about to call it off, forget about gift getting and quit while she was ahead at this gift getting shtick and stopped cracking her knuckles to tell him that.

 

"You know what-"

 

Something hit her forehead.

 

She blinked, brows knitting close and she touched her face, hand coming away with one of those gelatin heart shaped stickers you'd see on restaurant windows. Where even did he get it from actually? Jape was giggling now, looking at her with a bit of a lavender blush. She briefly remembered that popping her knuckles had that type of effect on all of the skeletons - as one may expect - and while it did not disturb them per say, it got laughable reactions out of them.

 

"Very funny Jay."

 

Jape's smile sung amusement, a trait he embodied; each skeleton seemed to have something that defined them similarly, and he shrugged, "You know me. You should've expected that~"

 

She did. Mostly. He was an open book, much like Pat, but there was still a few chapters that she was hazy on. She couldn't say the same for the bulk of the skeletons though, minus Sirius. He was an out there star bobble and told her everything that was on his mind at any given time.

 

She pulled at her thumb and it made a loud crackle pop.

 

Jape didn't look so amused anymore.

 

"Gross!" his shoulders hiked up and he pretended to shiver in disgust as he still grinned at the antic, the color on his skull brightening.

 

"So? Yes or no _joker_?" she crossed her arms with a smirk.

 

Jape exhaled dramatically and didn't have to deliberate much before saying why not, but also asking why. Then why again when she tried to say not to worry about it. A childish determination to find out what she was up to coming from him. It wasn't often she left on a day she wasn't asked to do an errand run or a day off.

 

"It's a surprise, you'll find out later. Promise. Just get me there first, if you will?" there was that hesitance again.

 

Jape held a skeletal hand to her, his phalanges a light flush of the same lavender that was dusting his face, finalizing his answer. She grabbed it, too distracted by the influence of magic to notice the water balloon that popped between their hands and Jape's snickering. They disappeared in a satisfying pop of sound.

 

Jape's teleporting skills weren't as strong and didn't go as wide a radius possibility without the presence of his twin who could still travel farther than him, and he could only get them so far as the town's entrance. That was plenty enough of a convenience for her and, while wiping her damp hand on her pants, smiled at Jape.

  
"Thanks Jay, now if you could wait for me that'd be great too. You can browse or whatever, just stay nearby, will ya sir?" she hoped she wasn't dragging this favor out longer than it could be or trying her luck.

 

He made a funny look at the term she used but it left straightaway.

 

"Kay, just be quick. Flap those wings!"

 

She scoffed, walking away.

 

"It was _one_ time!"

 

One time she jumps off a stair banister to salvage food she'd had in the oven from burning to the point of no recognition and now she they wouldn't stop with referencing her likeness to a bird for the sake of how she flailed in her decent and stuck the landing - _like a pro_. God, she was definitely going to go mad some time down the line.

 

She hustled to the nearest department store, a Walmart, and grabbed a cart. Tugging loose her tie and throwing off her blazer into the cart seat. She rolled it straight to the Valentine's section set up that looked like the holiday had puked all over it, steeling her feet on the bottom of the cart as it rolled with a slight rusty squeal. Hearts were slapped on everything and there wasn't much of a color palette outside of red and pink. She bit at her lip, eyes surveying out the items in search of something appropriate for her employers. She really hoped they didn't get the wrong idea when she gave them the gifts either. She didn't want to have to deal with an endless whirlpool of gauche complications stemming from _that_ misunderstanding. If any and some of them just didn't start avoiding her like she was a freak. Some time into her browsing, she was beginning to think she would have no such luck in late presents and just have to make some themed dessert to make up for it when a monster that shared the body of a large ferret or mink got her attention. He had a small booth near the aisle and wore the blue shirt all Walmart employees donned, and she saw that the booth also had the same theme. She decide to give him a try.

 

"Hey there." she greeted, arms leaning on the handle of her cart as she pulled up to the front of the booth.

 

The monster's whiskers seemed to twitch ceaselessly and a grin formed oddly on his freckled snout.

 

"Ah! Heya ma'am! 'm _Justin_. Helper to all those a little tardy to the love party." he tried to lean cooly on the side of the booth but tripped up and just went back to standing. He had a musical tune to how he spoke and the way he held himself was just so dorky. Like an unpracticed teen, which he probably was.

 

"Nice to meet you, um there isn't much to see in the rest of aisle. So uh, do you think you can help me bud?" she just about pleaded, leaning more on the cart. She was getting desperate here, and rethinking coming again because stress did that to a person who was indecisive at best.

 

He nodded, looking enthused.

 

"Yeah! What're you looking for?"

 

"Just some things that'll make me seem like a considerate total _not forgetter_ of holidays." she laughed at herself, Justin chuckling too.

 

"Don't worry, I've got your back." he assured confidently as he began to snatch and wrap things faster than she could process in a flurry of furry limbs and objects. Soon enough, there were eight gifts neatly arranged on the booth counter. She was impressed and curious.

 

"How'd you-"

 

"'s my talent. Now go on! Get these to those dapper skeletons an' all."

 

She was plenty curious now as to how he knew that, but she supposed her attire may have tipped him off. Then again, it seemed that almost all the monsters in town knew of her connection the skeleton owned manor since she started working there. She fished money from her pocket, which she had taken out from her own pay, and placed it on the booth counter in exchange for the gifts now stuffed in bags. Along with a tip for the monster.

 

"Thanks man, you're a friggin' life saver dude."

 

She didn't know how someone could have so much honest, peppy employee hospitality.

 

"It's why I'm here ma'am. You're welcome!"

 

She walked out the sliding doors of the store, blazer back on, and was aiming to head back to the meeting spot when she just had to spot the hobby shop down the way. That was about when her feet and mind stopped cooperating and conspired against her. Even with her saving money and time crunch logic fighting her want for a little something. She was in and out before she could buy anything pricy and make the spending money she had go _poof_. She didn't have to wait to long at the spot she and Jape arrived when she got there to see the skeleton walking to her. He and his brother had a thing for outlandish food, and candy was their main category of choice. Some of which he had gotten a hold of from the obscure costume and candy shop the opposite way of the art one. She _would_ be lying if she said she didn't like them too. Or taste test some with Jape in-between working. It was only those hairball gum balls he just mentioned that she didn't have the stomach to have a go at. Curry flavored mints was something she didn't mind though.

 

"Get all the things you need and stuff?" he tossed back a gumball in his strangely open mouth, somehow chewing without chewing because his mouth had since shut and he was blowing a huge bubble.

 

"Yeah."

 

His murky bubblegum bubble collapsed and she could see his skull clearly again with the obstruction. Ew. It smelled...indescribable.

 

"Wanna let me have a peek?" he asked, discreetly leaning in the direction of her bags.

 

"No." she snorted, moving them away.

 

He pouted, not really as annoyed as he made himself seem and brandished the hand that wasn't holding a paper bag out to her.

 

"Well fine." he hmphed farcically, blowing another bubble that popped faster than the last. He was satisfied when she gave a light laugh.

 

"Ready to go?"

 

She couldn't do the same and took a moment of awkward thinking before holding out her arm for him to grab. Before he did anything, she remembered a vital gesture she learned her brain to remember always at work during her nine months here, belting it out on instinct as she recalled this was all because of a favor Jape - one of her employers - had agreed to do when he could have flat out denied.

 

"Thank you sir."

 

He didn't quite like how she _had_ to refer to him like that, and he'd told her more than once about it and how he she didn't _need_ to go out of her way to keep up most of the nonchalant attitude that she carried while working. Rarely breaking out of it, even when she allowed some of herself to when talking to him. He and Pat insisted on her just calling them by their names without a sir here and there, and letting loose rather than using formalities. But, a finicky little contract that those of her employers who wanted her to concentrate on doing her job efficiently wrote it in as something for her to follow.

 

"you don't have to call me that." his voice was lower and softer as his grip on her arm became loose, signaling a change in mood she could tell because he projected himself when he spoke. Maybe not as loud Sirius, but enough to be well heard and unique in the household.

 

They teleported back to the manor and the monster stood idle there, not making a move to follow her down the gravel path that led to the house. She turned to him, and seeing as she couldn't do the traditional bow with her hands full, tipped her head his way as a substitute.

 

"Jape."

 

He said her name in the same stiff regard. It kind of worried her. He was usually child like almost in how he expressed himself, his personality based most on amusement and creating it for the enjoyment of others as seen in his little tricks and general silliness, and abandonment of seriousness. She guessed seeing her have to live here and not participate in their day to day as something that wasn't a house help must not sit with him very well. Match must not have told him about free loaders and how much the house didn't need one like he'd huffed at her before she even stuck foot in the door the first time she met the group.

 

And while she would have loved seeing where the skeleton went off to next and remind him that she was just here professionally and not as a friend, she had some gifts to get into place before the rest of her employers got home and no time to squeeze in much more if she wanted to get dinner done timely.

 

Maintaining a job while being thoughtful demanded focus.

 

* * *

 

 

_"give paper cuts."_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who thinks this wonk should continue this? 
> 
> ahh- btw this thing deleted half of the first draft for the chap. haha that was ssooooo fun to rewrite ;v;
> 
> and I'm not sure where this going
> 
> any ideas on what the gifts should be? I'm open for any


	3. *sleeping in.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more perspective on Jape?
> 
> [who's a Sans from Splittale if ya forgot]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess this chap is mostly for kicks until I can figure out what I want to do for the next one
> 
> oh and Justin, - the ferret dude from the last chap - he has some telepathic abilities. He read from the Insert some immediate knowledge of the skells. only enough to help him color code and select fitting gift items that she was thinking of, before forgetting it all together after he was done wrapping.
> 
> heh

Jape slept in a bunk bed with Icarus.

 

He'd called the top bunk when the idea was first mentioned the day that a spiraling mess of timelines had converged to splurge them all out herein what was supposedly the Alpha timeline where all of theirs we derived from. It was a result of their original's hunger for completing _the machine_ , for finally putting to use those notes from the previous Royal Scientist and making sense of and perhaps putting to rest more than a few theories. But now it seemed they were a lot farther from their new goal of reversing it all before something disastrous can come from the crossing of timelines. Jape himself was not as concerned as Icarus most times with this. He lived in the moment and Icarus- he clung to those moments for much longer than he should, allowing them to pressure him in ways they shouldn't. It was what made them equal halves of the same person. Where he was amusement, carelessness and fun, his half was admiration, despair and the fear of nothingness- of failure. They couldn't be farther from each other and yet, couldn't be closer because they were one. Just split in two.

 

It felt odd to call one another brother, but for the sake of keeping the trueness of this mess amongst only the skeletons it included, they played along. Jape supposed if one were to ask, he would be considered the younger brother. Yet also the older considering he would have to calm his half's shaking trepidations before they became too much for one monster to handle. It was part of the reason they shared a room. So that their magic could bounce off each other as it did in one monster, balancing out emotions in the night to reset them like a clock on daylight's savings for the morning. It was cyclic for them by now and so was the morning routine.

 

Though.

 

An object at the foot of his bed once he got settled in for the night was not a part of that cycle. He kicked up the bottom of his blanket, not loud enough to disrupt his half who went to bed earlier than most because of his sleeping problems - he sometimes just stayed up when he couldn't fall back into a slumber and wandered the house restlessly - and was a naturally light sleeper. He crept to the other side of the mattress, the sturdy wood of the bunk barely creaking, and reached out to the box. It wasn't very heavy in his hands, the wrapping paper a generic design that happened to be one of the colors he frequently wore. He slowly tore into the paper after sitting up on the bed. He opened the box underneath and found a...a lilac scarf. Soft to the touch. He didn't know why his soul chose that moment to pang- it hadn't even been his brother's favorite color!

 

...

 

He kept sifting through, a smaller heart shaped box of chocolates inside of which were all mystery flavors. He tried one, holding the square of chocolate with two distals and tossing it into his gaping mouth. It had black licorice filling that made his smile widen. Giddy from the late night sugar and sentiment from the gift he knew came from his dear maid friend, he cautiously scrambled back to the right side of his bed and stuffed the chocolate and scarf under his pillow and gently dropping the empty box off the side of the bunk with a soft sound.

 

A look under the bunk gave him an upside down view of an empty bed with tossed about blankets. A toppling pair of books on the nightstand and the empty glass of water that was once there gone. His eye lights blinkered, tilting his head with a thoughtful spark in those preceptors.

 

He wondered if his half had heard him this whole time.

  
His soul was known to be noisy through the bond they shared as a split one.

 

 

 


	4. Don't Bother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But you do.
> 
> this one's from Icarus' pov - the other Splittale Sans who isn't the only one of the skells to have a bad time getting rest without nightmares poking their heads in for some spooks

Icarus knew his half wouldn't come after him.

 

They wouldn't chase each other when the other was having some sort of issue, mainly because a person who wasn't broken in halves wouldn't exactly do a good job of comforting themselves in a time of stress, now would they? Icarus suffered from being the outlet that all their horrific and downhill thoughts was funneled to, Jape being what uplifted them. Any one else would have thought it was unfair, but that was the factual, unchangeable existence of a spit soul. Each part would undertake some extreme trait of one being and he just so happened to be less than lucky of what he was the physical form of. Not that he would ever complain. He wouldn't wish his burden upon anyone. Years of being what he was gave him the ability to cope rather well with it back in his own timeline, but here, in this new world, he was having more and more episodes of unrest. His mind a ceaseless berate of his demons much stronger and less bearable than ever before, almost like that of Vendetta. Except, that version of him seemed to have succumb to them long ago and he wasn't sure how much was left of the _Classic_ that was apparently burrowed within them all. He didn't seek out help either like him. 

 

Rather, it seemed to have sought him once someone was hired to help maintain the house.

 

She was...persistent. Among other things. She performed her job as aptly as her contract asked of her. He didn't commend her like some would and didn't brush her entirely aside. He acknowledged her. Entertained her with talk sometimes. But, not so much when she approached him during his evening wanderings.

 

She liked to do the same some nights, if she wasn't doing some last minute chore requests. She'd told him the first time she encountered him in the night that she had sleeping problems too, even if he hadn't told her that he had any to begin with. She just assumed and assumed very correctly. Sometimes he would catch her tailing him, others she would be in the kitchen, not lying in wait but there drinking tea. Then she would see him.

 

He didn't know why he would think any differently of tonight. Maybe it was because she usually wasn't awake like this three nights in a row.

 

He was almost concerned by that as he thought back to how much humans needed their rest to be functional and healthy.

 

She was at the grand oak dining table which looked rather large with only the human seated at it, a pair of frames perched on her nose that she didn't wear whilst working. One of her hands was cupped around a hot mug of Chameleon tea that's steam wisped in above it and she somehow noticed him immediately without having to glance at how he lingered in the doorway.

 

"Hey boss." she tended to call the more inverted of her employers that. He was an exception when he was being more tolerable and less reclusive.

 

His chin drew inward, the lights of his eyes dim, "hello."

 

Her eyes swept to him, looking weary but restless behind the lens of her glasses. Whenever he donned something that wasn't a sweater vest, it often looked much less unfitted and left him looking scrawny, more so than his brother. She looked back to the large book opened before her and sipped at her tea as she leafed past a page.

 

"Want some?"

 

He nodded reluctantly, wringing the hem of his shirt as before walking into the room and taking a seat a couple down from her on the same table side. The old wood of the chair groaning as he moved it back and sat, his hands making a faint clattering sound as he laid them on the table. He observed her as she got up - her attire, being that it was after hours, was a lot tamer. A loose shirt and plaid pants that she had rolled up the hems of or they would threaten to drag on the floor. She silently padded to the kettle that was still warm and prepared him a mug of tea in several fast motions. He looked down the table, picking at an imperfection in the wood with a distal and flinching when a mug suddenly came into his peripheral.

 

"Sorry boss." her voice fanned over him. He shakily took the mug and didn't look at her as she returned to her seat.

 

Another brief rustle of paper some five minutes after and he took a drink from the mug. The magic that was infused in the beverage having its usual calming effect on him that allowed him the feeling of being more Earth bound than void bound. He glimpsed at her, finding her attention devoted to the book she read, her jaw held up by the heel of one of her palms. His phalanges clacked against the mug's glass as he tapped them against it, and there was a nagging at the back of his skull that could only be his half. It seemed Jape was encouraging him through their connection to sit nearer to her and be more social. So, to appease that and make the annoyance cease, he switched seats using a shortcut. Unnecessary but he didn't want to disturb her. Not that the magic ripple in the air hadn't already.

 

He stared into the abyss of his mug, now stuck thinking about _that_ blunder and so many more he's made.

 

"You wanna...read with me boss?"

 

His skull quickly shot up at her thoughtfully cautious tone. His hold on his mug tighten but something twisted in the partial soul in his ribcage at her tired face. A shaky exhalation exited past his teeth.

 

He switched his seat again and she scooted hers closer. Her arm brushed against him and he stiffened more at the warmth of her presence. She didn't move after that, instead sliding her book across to rest between them so he could have more visibility access of it. She took a deep breath and collapsed back into the flow of reading, a sense of ease that mingled with something more radiating off her soul if he concentrated on it. He kept his hands busy by letting them remain wrapped around his mug as he let his eye lights wander the page the book was on.

 

It was about the striking phenomena of aurora borealis. An image of it and its expanding hues splayed on half of the opposite page He took another sip of the caramel colored tea in his mug, the flavor having changed at some point. He always had a preference for the pallet pleaser selection of tea.

 

It was interesting enough. He wasn't one for getting knee deep in learning about natural occurrences of the world too often, but he felt more compelled to engross himself in the passage for some reason.

 

She thumbed at the edge of the opposite page periodically and soon they were on a new chapter about the Marianas trench and water pressure at those unexplored depths, and well, it wasn't so much her turning the pages as it was him. She had fallen asleep ages ago. Leaning on his shoulder that had at first caused him to jar and her to wake with a jolt and mumbled _sorry 'bout that_ , but the second time he was expecting it _and_ allowing it. She was in a total state of deep slumber, even her soul had halted the brunt of its disquiet and he didn't have it in him to wake her. Admiration and pity sparking for the fact she had lasted so long into the night after toiling the day away and having to struggle with sleeping issues. Her soul able to make well known its exhaustion before she left the world of reality.

 

He remembered a time when...

 

When he wasn't a half and his brother would fret so much over his well being. Constantly pestering him to get more sleep or to sleep less. He wondered if his other selves cherished their fortune of still having their brothers beside them and well.

 

His brother always had been too good for him.

 

With consideration, he ripped off the paper square of his tea bag that was stamped with a flickering image of a caramel cube and wedged it into the book to save the page, shutting it. He gave a strum to the darting line of colorful page flags stuck in the book, she must really be an attentive reader. He placed an unsteady hand on her bicep and plucked off her glasses, somewhat rattled as he felt her warmth head on and blipped to her room and to her bed. He had to gently nudge off one of her hands when it reflexively flung at him, but otherwise she was still out cold.

 

He rose from where he had landed in a sitting position the bed and gripped her blanket, throwing it in a clean toss so that it arched in the air and fell over her whole body. He blipped back to the dining to get her book and unfinished tea, and quietly placed the former on her night stand with her glasses. Straightening it symmetrically before placing the mug on top of it. He was drawn to look at her again.

 

She was soundly breathing, a twitch of her fingers occurring momentarily before she was still again. A peacefulness he didn't know gracing her. Seeing her so blissful made him be hit again by the need for sleep that had been weighing on him since he started reading with her, his body threatening to shut down then and there.

 

He was able to grab his own mug of tea before teleporting to his shared room, setting the mug near his own stock of books. His eye lights winked out before he even his skull even hit his pillow, and for once he got a long night's rest in the following hours where he could still smell the milk chocolate her tea had mimicked.

 

It was like finding a sanction of tranquility to be undisturbed by his mind as he descended into rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not sure if i'll continue this trend of switching from perspectives but let's see how things go.
> 
> uhm, updates may not be as plentiful as they've been, this was my week off and after this weekend 'm gonna be back into the swing of school so yea ^^"
> 
> that and I have stories on Quotev that need tending to as well so I've been trying to get to all them. not to mention one's I haven't even published yet
> 
> if you'd like to check that out while you wait for an update here, here's a link: https://www.quotev.com/aflightlesslittlewoof


	5. Basil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You talk to Pat

Spring was a nice season. It brought life back from the clench of snowy winters, though those weren't half bad either if you asked her.

The dredges of the last one was still stubborn in letting go but soon enough, it would make way for something lush with life. Pat was one of her employers who especially enjoyed spring. He tended to an herbal garden behind the manor in a greenhouse. He insisted on keeping it year round, going so far as to camp out there when winter blizzards were at their worst and threatened to hit his plant collection with an unwelcome freeze. His brother would send her out their to make sure _he_ didn't freeze over with them. The skeleton was a very soft spoken, gentle being with no transgression, or seemingly capacity to have one, to anything across any species. Unless they were of the ill intent driven, then could he find a reason to go against himself. Which would explain why he kept anything meat related out of his diet, something she learned the hard way on her very first day. Speaking of which, he had the best manners at the table and away from it. There was simply nothing more benevolent or considerate than Pat.

 Except in the moments when she would find a dead mouse or some other and leave to get something to collect it only to come back and find him there. Looking crestfallen as he loomed over its corpse and yet she felt so inclined to turn the other way and run. It wasn't that she was as bias as to think they were the incarnates of death like most humans probably do based off a first impression, but the way she catches Pat or his brother just staring off sometimes like that made her remember her days were numbered.

 She preferred to put those moments out of mind.

 With the morning still high, he was already out and about by the greenhouse, where she could usually find him. He was kneeled on the ground, gazing scrutinizingly at the koi pond that took up a long rectangular strip between a couple, large patches of frostbitten clovers and golden flowers, and had only a mere thin sheet of ice on it left. Pat had plans to move the fish back into it from the holding tank they were being housed in when it was completely defrosted, and she was definitely going to help the transition of putting them back into their home. She called out to him and he smiled in surprise, looking away from the empty pond to her.

 "Hello there my Helper." he got up from the moist, barely there grass. He was dressed in a warm gray, cloaking, knitted overthrow. He had several of them he wore nearly daily, all in dark, muted tones that brought a certain softness to him. It was long enough to have splayed on the ground while he was down there and dared to do so even as he stood to his towering height that he, Rus and Zygote all had a surplus of. If you were to make a chart of their heights, he would probably be second to Zygote.

 He dusted off his plain black slacks, not that he minded getting mud on any of his clothing. His worn boots amplified that. He flicked something off one of his gardening gloves that he wore often and she recalled how she had to on more than one occasion play the role of a landscaper with him as he kept the slightly vast area that edged the wood. It gave her a good source of a workout and helped her exercise the agricultural knowhow she had. The flower pin on the right side of his chest that she gave him some time back was what he adjusted next. It was hard to find a time when he was not wearing it and it made her pleased to see he liked it so much.

 "So, any idea on what additions you want to make to the garden?"

 He chuckled, "I'm sure you know the answer to that. But, I was thinking of basil. The one thing you _haven't_ gotten me."

 She grinned brightly. For Christmas and the passing Valentine's, the presents she got him were included different seeds she knew he hadn't grown yet and had hoped he would like. She had been playing it by ear when she shopped for the seeds, not knowing much on what would be the best choices for sturdy, year round plants except for several. The thank you she got from him on both occasions satiated whatever doubt she did have for getting things wrong.

 "Have you checked on the willows yet?" she suddenly thought of the weeping trees not so far into the woodland of the forest now that her mind was back to the topic of vegetation and the like. While the closer flat of land around the manor was mowed and preened, the woods remained overgrown and lush with an untamed habitat no one would want to try to take a weed whacker to. Like Pat had made some unsaid deal with nature.

 "Yes. They're doing fine. Scraggly, but that is to be expected. They're sure to be back in full swing by the summer." they were down by a slow flowing stream that would be hopping with tadpoles and minnows during the heat throes of the upcoming season, and their long, swaying limbs made perfect shade for simmering summer days.

 She learned that back when she first got her job here so many months ago and Pat invited her to attend a picnic with he and his brother, who didn't talk much even then. It was a thoughtful gesture and she supposed she began growing fond of Pat because of it.

 Speaking of which, it was hard to imagine that she had been here for nearly that long. An entire _year_. The job itself was a handful but also satisfying in its own way. Labor had that effect when you accomplished what you needed with it. To think that she was close to achieving the goal she had come here with to continue on and do another was enough to jar her. While she was mostly physically dedicated to the job of being a groundskeeper of sorts, she still felt this sturdy thread of an emotional attachment when the topic of leaving came up in her thoughts of the future. She fiddled with a smooth button her blazer, catching it between her fore finger and thumb.

 "Do you need any help with the yearly's?" she asked to get mind off thinking about it.

Pat put his hand to his chin in mock thought, other on his hip. Rus had a habit of doing a similar pose, though it was more dramatized than this one, and Zygote, well his poses were much more incidental than purposeful. It was a funny trait for them to share with their other personality traits that created effective severances from making them exactly alike. It was a reoccurring thing with the whole lot of skeletons.

 "Well yes, but could you please go inside to check on the hanging plants in the kitchen? I think I forgot to this morning. I'll be in the greenhouse when you get back." he spoke fastly, like he needed to get that out before anything else happened it. She didn't question it and just went with the order.

 "Can do." she sloppily saluted to him as she headed back to the manor, passing through the high stone arch that had barricading, bushes she would have jumped over if they were not nearly leafless.

She didn't have to figure out a faster route for getting to her destination with how the manor was set up, and went at a quick pace that she worked with on the usual. When she got into the kitchen, the hanging plants were actually perfectly taken care of - a not so uncommon sight - as she found when she stood on a barstool to examine them. Watered and even pushed more to the window for proper sunbathing. Confused, she hopped off the stool to go back out through the back door, waving to Jape on the way.

 She walked back to the greenhouse, something urging her to. She entered, the film door trembling on its hinges that she was planning to correct herself sometime, and inside she saw the growing rows of budding green herbs healthy as ever from nurturing care. As well as Pat who had suddenly burst into tears since she last saw him. Sharply gasping, she took no time in hurrying to find out why.

 "S-sir? Are you alright?" she placed a cautious hand on his arm.

 A shuddered, impossible breath came from him and he smiled tearfully at her. It shook something in her to see the gentle monster so off put. She always saw him as this peaceful middle ground among the skeletons that smoothed things when they were ruffled, or tried to. Not all things could be fixed and he accepted that, but still, he tried _so much_. It was inspirational and this episode was making her all the more worried that one those skeletons had pushed things too far during a moment she wasn't aware of.

 Her morals wouldn't let her stand for that.

 "O-oh, just fine." which was an unconvincing and crumbling lie. His brother was better at those.

 He had fallen into this sobbing mess because of how the tugs of gasping life pulled at him from every angle sometimes. Spring being the worse when you considered the cries of nature's dying beasts and new life. His brother was able to endure the feeling much more than he could, bearing no real remorse for any of its sources and only concentrating his conscious on reaping those suffering lives when needed. Especially those who could not outrun their sins fast enough to escape him. Even before their time. He wasn't one to be hesitant and, not in any manner of the word either. Pat, on the other hand, had a problem with being _too_ remorseful. He felt guilt for every death or plighted soul and he couldn't help but want to rescue every one from the brink. Though, he had come to terms long ago that he couldn't quite. He still refused to be like his brother and gave how ever many souls he could a second chance to turn from bleakness and stand in hope, if only a feeble slice of it. But, those were slim to stumble on most days.

 Moments would happen when he just fell into the belly of hopelessness souls could conjure and send on aching wavelengths that sadly transmuted through him and his brother. How he wished for something other for the celestial plane to have chosen them to be the judges and juries of.

 "A-a HUG WOULD BE NICE HUMAN." the loud change in his volume to something that clanged in the roosts of the greenhouse made her fully aware that something was very much wrong and she embraced him. Trying to comfort him as much she could through it.

 The young woman hesitated to say anything as he enveloped her in his arms with a lurch, then got an idea as the scent of daffodils and wet soil met her nose from his draping overthrow. She breathed softly and patted his lower back, she couldn't reach much higher without stretching up to.

"Come on sir, why not we go out and get that basil you were talking about? My- my mother loves the smell of those, I remember." her mind went back to when her mothers would use the herb in her dishes. She missed her mother's cooking, from the smell to the taste. She could do the best simple, culinary wonders with whatever she had on hand to use.

He sighed again in a shaky exhale that someone with no organs didn't have the lungs for, still not letting her go as he agreed. The warm remembrance that escaped her soul unknowingly, helping to reassert his composure. A loud soul could really help the emotions of monsters, especially of those that are _Seers of the Soul_.

"Yes, that sounds lovely. Let's take the buggy." he mindlessly thought of how he could ensure her fate didn't mean a foul end by cause of reaping or something else he couldn't hope to forgive himself for.

It was just something he couldn't help but to do, particularly when spring was such a...nice season.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it always feels kind of cool to make your own cannon traits for characters in aus and I like how the one's I'm using - and making on the fly - here are coming into play


	6. Nicotine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strings tends to...smoke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: so i love G!Sans' portrayal in We Are Untitled - and the take elicitsins on tumblr has on him - so i think i might change his moniker to Strings in homage, or just make reference to another human calling him by that instead of what the Insert is used to addressing him as. also, i may draw more reference to other six skeleton and 1 girl themed fics. and honestly, i would feel honored for raccoonsinqueen to see this ;w;
> 
> oh and there's some tension for Insert in concerns to how she is viewed by the skells?? i mean she is kind of just the help all things considered, so i figure she should be reminded of that in some way she'd rather not when she already knows it

She hated cigarettes. With a burning passion and that's something that would never change.

 

She hated the smell that would linger most next to the burnout buds she would occasionally find in the ashtray set on the kitchen window, or when she cleaned Match's room. Well, more like neatened it up. She could never do a deep clean because he didn't want any  _sensitive_  items to be accidentally trifled with. There in lies also some clear trust issues she didn't have to ask about to know was there. She knew that he was uncomfortable with her being human sometimes, she attributed to it being why he set so many boundaries- like a curfew on the last day of her breakaways from work, or the fact the basement was totally off limits to her unless she had a guide in tow. The woods too were a gray area that required a chaperone and honestly, as much as she didn't like those rules, she went with them. Hoping that they weren't entirely set in stone and that before her time here is up, she might know what it is that has him so guarded in some areas.

 

But in others, it's like he's one of those people you just click with and feel like you couldn't have not known your whole life. She can talk with him about anything that he brings up, no filter or excuses except for those moments when there were. His brother managed to keep those moments to a much smaller minimum in his case. The self taught intellectual being a modest bookworm she could enjoy talking to. Another reason she wished she knew why Match would draw back as he did. He seemed good enough like any other monster she'd met in her lifetime, maybe not all put together because of some issues she's picked up on her radar, - all these skeletons had some - but she could tell he was trying not to let them _become_ him. She could notice an internal struggle anywhere.

 

The one thing she couldn't help but despise was how he apparently dealt with the cauldron of things bothering him;  _smoking_.

 

How even did he without _lungs_?

 

She bumped close the dryer she was freeing clean, crisp clothes from with a hip. She tossed them with the rest into a hamper that was small enough for her to tote around without throwing out her poor back that was always on a strain in this busy house. She lifted it with ease and left the small laundry room that was more like a large closet, for the vacant halls - most of the skeletons were out or milling around some other part of the manor . You'd think it would be the size of a locker room given the rest of the estate's grandeur.

 

It just drove her up a skyscraper some times when she spotted his figure disappearing down the hall with a tailing wisp following him, or she could smell the tobacco tarrying in the air. Not only did it make her mad because it was one of those things in life she would always have a closed opinion on, but she genuinely couldn't take the heavy scent of it. It squeezed her lungs and if there was enough, made her feel like she may choke if she stayed in the room long enough.

 

It was some sort of odd reflex for her that left doctor's scratching their heads when she got it checked out, and only added fuel to the fire of why she _hated_ those tar filled death sticks. Who would want to kill themselves slowly like that? Or rather, _like_ the stench they made? She just might at this rate with how often Strings had been at it this past week. She almost opted to letting the windows around the entire manor stay wide open to keep the air flow from turning pungent with the odor of his habit. Sure, these skeletons didn't have organs to worry about but she wanted to live a long life without some terminal cancer in the future, but she was a different story. She didn't have the right amount of courage to to go to him and broach the issue either, but given the circumstances lately, that was changing as her patience was grated. 

 

She was turning a corner with the load of laundry when she happened to lurch incidentally into Strings- lurch because she reacted to seeing him last second with a rippling flinch that hit his wide chest.

 

"Shit, sorry boss." she sputtered, startled. She had managed to catch the few articles that came loose from the hamper in her arms before they fell to the floor, and Match looked at her with a distantly interested gaze. Typical of him. Even though he was the one who essentially hired her, it didn't mean he was sweet on her or thought she was especially wonderful from what she knew. Kind of like a house cat who was only nosy when it suited him.

 

"'s cool. accidents an' all that." his tenor had a certain drop and richness, and it reminded her of how he was apparently vocally inclined and didn't hesitate to use that talent to his benefit.

 

It wasn't hard to tell since she caught him in the act once, his door open and an acoustic guitar cradled in his arms. He looked so approachable then as he created a tune all his own, warped in his mind's palace of creation. His brother was the one to tell her music making was what Strings did for a living. He also mentioned a beach house Match preferred to record in that they owned in addition to the manor. Had you set her in front of the more shielded of the two for the first time, she would've guessed he was an indie musician from his vibes alone. She hadn't been able to hear him sing so much as lowly hum a ditty before he saw her and the door was flung shut, rattling on it hinges by the intense throw of his magic. She wouldn't want a repeat demonstration done on something that wasn't as inanimate and invulnerable to pain. Even if it meant his singing would have to be left to the imagination.

 

"Yeah. Uh, actually," she took a short breath, remembering her frustrations as she got a whiff of the trace evidence clinging to him, "while I've got you here, I wanted to talk to you about something."

 

"really?" the brow of his skull seemed to quirk like malleable clay stone. All the past snippets of interactions they barely had came back to her and it struck that they really didn't talk much past him asking for something or random run ins like this.

 

He was dressed causal and comfortable - when wasn't he? - in a snow gray turtle neck with upturned cuffs and high rise leather jeans. His bulky belt bulk clinked softly as he stuffed his hands in his front pockets, thumbs pushing on the buckle, and shifted most of his weight to rest on one lanky leg. Admittedly, his style was pleasing to look at and blended with the unruffled attitude he bore. 

 

"Yes." she deadpanned, "Has to do with your smoking." she hoped that part wasn't pushing it with the cut.

 

Match's placid drew taut. He looked harried, maybe from her mentioning his tendency. It was comparable to the way some of the other manor residents looked when they thought no one was looking and they could allow themselves to collapse some.

 

"ah. well, what about it?"

 

"Think you can stick to the courtyard while doing it? Or somewhere it doesn't leak into every floor." she gripped the hamper's handles a bit tighter now while keeping a cool conduct. No need to get too huffy here, an argument wasn't the way to go.

 

The skeleton was looking more antsy by her lip, it seemed, from the unamused glaze to his pale eye lights and he passed the tips of his phalanges over one of the fractures in his slim skull. Like a faux scratch. She sometimes wondered if those ever hurt, like a pulsing headache or something worse.

 

"y'see, i don't think you're the one allowed to make those types of demands, flower. am i right?"

 

She refrained from glaring up at him, eyes flicking to the hole in his palm and the sudden chilliness she felt focusing on it.

 

"It's not a demand- just a request. It's impeding my work capabilities,  _sir_. I don't think that helps anyone, does it?" 

 

He hummed musically, looking past her in a way she could take as standing here wasn't a waste of time for him, but not something he exactly _wanted_ to do. 

 

"guess i could get out your hair with that logic in place. mostly."

 

Great.

 

Match's punctured hand pat her head, deciding to let it rest there after like a cinder block as he spoke down to her metaphorically and actually. She felt the need for fight or flight from the gesture's suddenness, but no doubt she could be countered magic and it wasn't rational to start thrashing around anyway. The weight of his hand felt heavier the more she thought about it's inhibiting presence, body statue still. 

 

"you should keep your nose out of people's habits though. jus' sayin'. not everyone likes bein' nagged. alright?"

 

...and _she_ didn't like being treated like a tractable  _dog_. 

 

" _Affirmative_." she had half a mind to _bark_.

 

The monotonous answer seemed enough though and appeared to waver him as he hesitated to remove his hand, an odd turn to his smile and something like guilty sympathy in those eye lights. Served him right if he realized just what kind of intimidation he was using.

 

"...sorry kid." 

 

Match brushed past her, a mix of his woodsy cologne and the aromatic smell of the peppermint tea thankfully masking the musk of cigarette vapor, and she swore that maybe she was hearing things when she caught that small apology. Still, she could feel more firmly the reality of being inherently lesser compared to her employers from the reminder of that actual, unseen barrier. It made her think of the matter of humanity and treating others as existing beings opposed to little machines that were meant to obey and not act out.

 

What was the fun in being alive and able to think for yourself when you couldn't carry out those simple abilities you were given?

 

She sighed, feeling ragged over her thought process. That was much too heavy thinking for a mostly uneventful afternoon, in her case anyway. She was restricted and that was normal, it was how having a job goes. What different was this from any other one? She had more important things to worry about other than work boundaries and whether or not they can be broken down just so she wouldn't feel the fullness of her place as _just_ a worker. 

 

Like what food she was possibly going to put on the table considering there was barley anything edible enough in the fridge to prepare a real meal- _and_  with dinner fast approaching at that.

 

She sighed again, popping into the twins' room to drop off their clothes, the image of a monthly log of chores fluttering in her mind. The one taped up on a tile wall in her small bathroom that included a time stamp she missed a few weeks back.

 

Time for an overdue grocery run is what that meant.

 

* * *

_"There are no strings on me."_


	7. note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *random hiatus disengaged?*

heh.

i was gone a while, but that was within good reason. with finals and then regents as a chaser, this past month has been insane. not to mention, i suck at school and it's just been all around kicking my ass. so i've essentially been an anxiety squirrel these past weeks thinking about all the wrong ways my education is going. but, life is not without it's turnarounds.

summer is here and even though some shit has happened that i can't get over just by knowing that, i guess now i can get back into the swing of being able to get my fics chugging along again. i hope to update both here and on qoutev more, but i'll be having a job as far as i know starting july - a little internship thing - and i think i'll mostly only have weekends free to me to write and do other fun things.

anyways, this'll be back in business soon enough.

see ya then


	8. Parsely

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Yea. We need that too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shopping...with Vendetta.

Her grocery shopping trips usually had the more overzealous skeletons of the mix who actually liked to go on them, joining her. Or, one of the mellower ones that liked socializing with her to some extent. 

They served as good company and transportation where she had none. But, getting pitted with Vendetta on this occasion was not something she thought she would see the light of day of. It also made her rethink just getting her hands a car since the skeletons were so wary of her driving one of their own. Even Pat. It certainly would make it less troublesome for them and hash out having to be her shuttle to and from the manor.

Getting herself physicked up for the errand run was hard, to put it mildly. _It would only be for the not so better part of the day_ , she tried to assuage herself. Which wasn't really assuring at all in retrospect. Vendetta wasn't one for interactions much, even less than Icarus and certainly Match. Meaning every opportunity for her to feel gauche when she hit a wall in what to say to him. There wasn't even any other alternative to an escort as Vendetta was conveniently the most indisposed today - a shock really. On a regular day, he was preoccupied and off roaming in the evening doing whatever his job description was, and returning home at some hour she still didn't know. Except that it was much later than even she would stay up on some nights. He was so to himself and quiet, and seemed to be constantly on the move in the manor when he was there. Like a phantom.

She couldn't remember the last time she had a meaningful conversation with him that lasted more than a minute or what it was that they spoke about. He only really ever hailed her over when he wanted something specific to eat or drink, or for her to clean. He was much less...dependent on her as a groundskeeper than his housemates. She dubbed him the wallflower out of the skeletons with his reclusive nature. He wore darker shades than his brother that also cloaked much of his smaller form, and that included a pair of leather gloves snapped on at his wrists. An item she's seen him with constantly in the encounters she has had of him. It was a well known fact that he knew and was well versed in sign language too. She discovered for herself when she saw he and his brother have a silent exchange through the complex series of hand motions. 

His looming figure was standing by the manor's high, sharp spired gate, his hood pulled back under the gloom of the gray sky. An inscrutable look traced him as he stared upward at the clouds and his hands were hidden away in the pockets of his pants. There must be mutual ground on the whole, why factor here about the match up of the day. He wasn't exactly bursting with joy about it.

She left her light jacket open, having ditched her blazer for it. A black, spandex long sleeve and jeans replaced her usual, fitted dress shirt and pants too.

She didn't want to come off as impatient when he didn't immediately react to her, and cleared her throat. Gauging his slow reaction.

"We're off then, I guess?" she half reached a hand out, waiting for him to take it and blip them away in the same vortex shortcut some of the other skeletons were also capable of using.

He turned his eye lights to her. They were intense, like expired lighthouse beams. Burnout and holding on by minuscule energy. 

He hand was around her wrist before she could have the chance to take it. Phalanges a little too tightly wound.

"right."

The motion of taking a shortcut was jerky as Vendetta warped to the nearest super market. Her stomach flipping like the first time she was pulled somewhere by the space defying magic that wouldn't cease to jar her. The other trips before now were so much more tame. Safer even, so she was surprised by this difference. They - well she - landed heavy on her feet and nearly toppled over as she was left to deal with the sensations of the rough shortcut without anyone to steele on. Vendetta had let her go the moment they arrived and was on standby, hands tucked back away. He seemed to exude a carelessness to her well being as he began walking off to the market entrance after making sure she was still breathing, expecting her to follow as he called her along.

"come on. let's get this done with."

She steadied herself and stood from where she'd leaned down with her hands on her knees. She scowled at his back. _Jackass_.

The cool air of the super market was enough to ease her stomach and she dawdled at the entrance to allow it to trickle over her before pulling out a shopping cart from a row. Vendetta silently trailed behind and his silence wasn't entirely companionable. It had her thinking about what he was.

He could be internally grumbling over being forced here or was just settling with the duty. Or anything considering he was among the harder to decipher of her bosses and she wasn't sure if she should put tremendous effort into it given she wasn't going to be around the manor forever for it to matter. Whether the three of her shut in employers would ever come around and open up to her the same way their open brothers did was solely on them. So, if they were to spontaneously decide befriending her like the rest of the manor's monsters, good for them. Having them be a bit chummy with her was better than having them out to catch her mistakes or secretly loath her humanly existence.

But again, she was too up in the clouds. She had actual work to do besides be sociable with her employers when they sought her and fret about the image they had of her. She was their groundskeeper, not a nanny.

Retaking the food trip in stride, she started off with going for the goods that didn't need a refrigerator to survive. She spared Vendetta the occasional glance and found he was too busy flitting over the stuff on shelves nearby to notice. She hoped he was anyway. They eventually drifted to the condiments section and she knew a couple of her employers had a peculiar liking for a few of them. Vendetta actually preferred-

Some bottles of salad dressing she was reaching for were tossed into the cart by a swift flick of the monster's magic. She looked at him with a raised brow and again was met by no emotion in particular. Just something calmly adrift and a twinge of a smirk to his smile.

Okay. Another one off the list then.

Soon enough after some more quiet shopping and her mind going on a thought spree, they were in the frozens aisle. She shivered from having to idle there as she got milk and other dairy products. It seemed her flight jacket wasn't enough to keep her warm. Or maybe it was the tears in her jeans making her feel more cold than what she should. She opened another freezer that breathed a light cloud into the air and doodled something in the fog on the door's window with a finger before pilfering what she needed from inside it's icy belly. She could see Vendetta's reflection in the glass when she closed it and flinched from the randomness of it. She could be so jumpy around these skeletons sometimes.

"you good there, kid?" his brow flexed questionably.

She tossed frozen vegetables in the cart, "Yea Ven. You just spooked me 'sall."

She was expecting some kind of chide for using the nickname, but it didn't come. She continued on shopping and trying to ignore the cold as they finished up with the frozen section. Vendetta truthfully wasn't much help, more like a watchful accessory as she walked the aisles. He stuck close by and vaguely pointed out items he thought were worth getting periodically. It made things bearable but not exactly ideal to be as she would have liked a monster more open to chattiness sometimes.

"a little mindless today?"

She was jarred from thought and realized she'd been holding the same box of snack mix long enough for Vendetta to notice. She looked at him, the skeleton inching close but not enough to brush her. She smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry boss. My brain was just wondering without me." she threw the box carelessly into the cart that was actually pretty full now. Time to head to the cashier. 

She decided that maybe she could drift into a conversation with him if she tried hard enough. He may be stony around the edges but there had to be more under that brick wall of an exterior. 

"So uh, what's up?"

He kept his dim eye lights ahead.

"the ceiling."

She paused and smiled slowly. That's what she used to say to her siblings and friends all the time when they asked too.

"Well, you're not wrong."

She could have sworn she saw his grin twitch.

"Come on, before the lines get too long."

She picked up speed and hurried to a short line at the registers. When their turn came up, she placed the stuff from the car onto the register conveyor for price scanning and some were floated over by Vendetta as he multi-tasked and also used his hands to pile them on. Once they got everything paid for - using Pat's credit card as he and Zygote were the ones who handled grocery expenses - and bagged, she didn't have to wait long for Vendetta to grab her. This time by the arm and more gentle in comparison to before. Kudos to him on learning pressure control. He was holding the smaller half of the bags as she convinced him she was very much capable of carrying handling the excess weight. He didn't argue with that and let her do her thing. Now it was time for him to do his when there was a disturbance.

Some humans were chatting among themselves but obnoxiously loud in one of those intentional ways.

"Told ya coming here would mean monsters. Just look at 'em all." one said like a child in awe of seeing living, breathing creatures.

"It's like an epidemic- gross." another went with a sneer.

"Can we just leave? I'm not sure how much more I can stomach dude." a third less than whispered.

She felt her anger well up. How dare a bunch of young jokers come to a place that was trying to bridge the gap between human and monsters? This town was meant to help in the efforts of unity and to interrupt that peaceful intent for no reason by being racist little shits wasn't going to fly with her. And neither was Vendetta apparently as he was gone from her side and now in front of the trio. Standing not as tall, but certainly with a noticeable presence from his heated magic. 

"you kids look like you're lost. need some directions, or should _i  d r a g  y o u r  s o r r y  a s s e s  o u t  o f  h e r e_?"

They cowered back and while she couldn't see him face, she knew he must be giving them a good reason to be afraid.

Once, back when she just started working, she'd made a misstep and it was cause for a temper snap from Ven. He'd threatened her life that day, telling her that if she ever got out of line or hurt any of his family, that he would have her head. She didn't doubt that he would make full on that promise if she ever crossed him again, but was rightfully offended that he assumed the type of person she was. That type being the ones these punks were.

"G-get the fuck away from us!" the ring leader spouted, all of his friends following his example in beginning to put some distance between themselves and Vendetta. They even eyed her like they were expecting her to treat them with some kind of human-human empathy and support their views of monsters being big and bad, and disgusting. Like flaming hell was she going to.

Humans so far, have yet to really realize just how much they fit that definition more.

Ven chuckled sardonically and deadpanned, "pick your sight seeing trips a little better. this ain't a zoo. do well to remember that."

The young idiots gave Ven one last frightened look before they wisely started their way hopefully out of town all together. It would be a public service to have them gone so no poor citizen had to deal with their dumb chickenshit minds. She couldn't stand her own species sometimes when they said stupidity like they did.

Vendetta walked back to her, face drawn weary and smile tense. She knew he would value some silence after the shitheads' appearance and held her arm out to him. 

The skeleton transported them back to the manor posthaste and right into the kitchen no less. Perfect. Made her job a whole lot easier. He set his haul of the bags down as she did and she looked at him. 

"Thanks boss." she half smiled. It seemed that Vendetta accompanying her was actually for the better considering she didn't have to go toe to toe with those wayward monster haters if she were alone. She would probably would have returned to the manor with some questionable bruises among other troubles.

He grunted and maybe his smile was yet again glinting with something less gruesomely solemn.

She knew who's favorite was getting cooked tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i haven't updated in a while and i just wanted to say my writing style has changed some - i forgot to post this a while back so it's been finished and sitting here since then - so the format of chapters may or may not feel different moving forward. but yeah. that's all.
> 
> also, sorry for not posting in so long. i've been getting into some anime and also trying to catch up on old shows, and plus college is coming so it's been a whirlwind for my mind lately. that aside, i'll see you in the next chapter

**Author's Note:**

> uhhhh
> 
> constructive criticism?
> 
> be gentle with me, I know I'm trash ;-;


End file.
